Regardless of the progress humanity has made in modern medicine even just in the last century, there is still much we do not understand about the human body. This is especially true of the brain, where something as common as dreams is the subject of active debate about their fundamental nature, whether they serve a purpose, and where they originate. One research team hopes to delve a little deeper into this mystery and has designed a special glove that helps you reach a little deeper into the subconscious mind.
The glove, called Dormio, has a number of sensors and feedback mechanisms that researchers hope will help explore the link between dreaming and creativity. The volunteers were allowed to take a nap while wearing the glove, which could detect when they started to enter a certain stage of sleep. At this point, the device will provide an audio signal to plant an idea in the dreams, in this case specifically prompting the sleeper to think of trees. Upon awakening, all reported dreaming specifically of trees and also demonstrated increased creativity on tests compared to the control groups.
While this may not have the most obvious implications, opening the brain to be receptive to more creative ideas can have practical effects beyond making art or music. For example, researchers are also investigating whether the glove can help people with PTSD cope with nightmares. Technically, this glove isn’t much different from some other devices we’ve seen before, and duplicating one to perform similar functions might be possible for most of us willing to experiment on ourselves.
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